Tufted pile fabrics



BY fw W. A. RICE TUFTED PILE FABRICS Filed April 1'?, 1956 FIG.

FIG. 2

United States Patenthce 2,810,950 Patented Oct. 29, 1957 TUFTED PILE FABRICS Walter A. Rice, Amsterdam, N. Y., assignor to Mohasco Industries, Inc., Amsterdam, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application April 17, 1956, Serial No. 578,767

4 Claims. (Cl. 28-78) This invention relates to pile fabrics suitable for tioor coverings in the form of carpets and rugs and is concerned more particularly with a pile carpet, which can be made at high speed by tufting operations performed on a sewing machine and has characteristics superior to those of similar tufted carpets as made up to the present.

The manufacture of tufted carpeting has made great strides in the last few years, as improved tufting machines have become available in wide widths, and such carpeting has commonly included a backing fabric of jute or cotton, in which the elements of the pile are anchored. To facilitate the passage of the tufting machine needles through the backing, the fabric used is ordinarily of relatively loose weave and adds little body or stiffness to the tufted product. Also, the backing is relatively thin and, because of that and of its loose construction, it affords relatively little lateral support to pile elements anchored therein and the pile is more readily crushed than that of a woven pile fabric of like quality. The application of a latex or like coating to the under surface of the backing of tufted carpeting increases its stiffness and body and also anchors the pile elements more firmly, but the coating does not provide lateral support for the pile elements.

I have found that it is possible by the use of a new construction to produce a tufted carpet, which is comparable to woven fabrics of substantially greater cost in weight and stiffness and in the resistance of its pile to crushing. The `tufted fabric of the invention derives the stated characteristics from the use of a bat of intermingled fibers and of substantial thickness to replace the relatively thin backing fabrics ordinarily employed in such fabrics. The pile of the new fabric is made up of elements formed of yarn extending through the bat and inserted by the needles of a tufting machine and the fibrous bat employed is of such thickness that it supplies substantial lateral support to the pile elements. In order to obtain such support, the bat used in the fabric is chosen with regard to the overall thickness of the fabric including the pile, so that the thickness of the bat is greater than one-fourth the fabric thickness and preferably at least about one-third of that thickness. Although such a bat is substantially thicker and heavier than an ordinary backing fabric, the pile yarns may be passed through the bat without difculty, because the fibers therein are not spun but merely interlaced and felted together. 'I'he fibrous bat not only gives weight and body to the carpeting, but, in addition, is somewhat resilient and springy, so that it provides an inherent cushioning effect.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a view in transverse cross-section on an enlarged scale of a fabric embodying the invention; and

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the fabric on the same scale.

The fabric illustrated in the drawing is a tufted fabric with a loop pile and it comprises a base 10, which is formed of a bat 11 of unwoven fibers. The fibers may be felted together and a desirable form of the base is a needled felt. Such a felt is made by placing a layer of the fibers upon a fabric sheet 12 and then forcing the fibers through the sheet by a needling operation, so that the sheet lies within the bat and is concealed by fibrous material on either side of it. The layer of fibers, which has been forced through the sheet, is ordinarily thinner than the remainder of the bat and, in use, provides the under surface 13 of the bat. This surface may be coated, if desired, with a thin film of a material such as latex after the bat is tufted.

The tufting operation is carried on in a multi-needle tufting machine of usual construction and, as the bat is fed through the machine with its surface 13 uppermost, the needles carry loops 14 of pile yarn through the bat and the loops are caught by the loopers of the machine and held as the needles are retracted. The tufting operation may leave pile elements in the form of loops projecting from the lower surface of the base as the latter passes through the machine, or, if desired, the loops may be severed to provide tuft pile elements. In the operation of the machine, the base is fed stepwise past the row of needles and the latter insert the pile yarn loops in rows extending transversely of the base. Each needle in the machine also inserts longitudinal rows of the elements and the portions of each pile element, which lie within the base, such as the portions 15, 16 of the loop 14a, are connected by lengths 17, 1S of the yarn lying against the under surface of the base to portions 19, 20 of pile elements 14b, 14C lying on either side of element 14a in the same longitudinal row.

In the fabric illustrated, the fibrous base 10 is shown as having a thickness between one-third and one-half the overall thickness of the fabric measured between the top of the pile loops 14 and the under surface of the lengths of pile yarn lying against the back of the base, such as the lengths 17, 18 of the yarn. When the fabric includes a fibrous base of such thickness, the pile elements are afforded good support by the enclosure of the relatively long portions thereof within the base and, in addition, the elements are firmly locked in place in the base. A base having a thickness greater than one-fourth the thickness of the fabric affords better support for the pile elements than an ordinary fabric backing sheet, but it is preferable to use a base, the thickness of which is at least one-third that of the pile fabric.

It will be apparent that, in the new fabric, the use of a fibrous base of a thickness, which is a substantial proportion -of the fabric thickness, adds desirable weight and bulk to the fabric and, as such a base is somewhat resilient and springy, it provides an important cushioning effect. At the completion of the tufting operation, the under surface of the base may be coated with latex or any of the usual materials employed for the purpose, and such a coating further increases the stiffness, so that the fabric resists being kicked up into wrinkles when in use.

I claim:

1. A pile carpet, which comprises a base formed of a bat of intermingled fibers and a pile above the upper surface of the base and made up of pile elements lying in rows extending lengthwise and transverse of the base, the pile elements being formed of yarns having lengths extending in pairs through the bat with the components of each pair connected along the under surface of the bat to components of adjacent pairs in the same lengthwise row, the bat having a thickness greater than one-fourth of the overall thickness of the carpet.

2. The pile carpet of claim 1, in which a textile fabric lies within the bat between and parallel to the upper and under surfaces of the bat, the fibrous mass of the bat is anchored `to the textile fabric by ber bundles passing are loops; a

thmxjougvh' the fbro, anlm'the lengthsorf'the yarns extending Y through the hat pass through` tl f'ahr'i'c.

Walsh et al. July 11, 1939 Mllr c* 31; 19110;" Underwood t al, Oct. 9, 1951 Bloch et al. May 11, 1954 Cogovan Apr. 19, 1955 Rice Oct. 16, 1956 

